Wednesday, 30 October 2024

Uninstall Google Workspace Sync for Microsoft Outlook (GWSMO)

Occasionally the GWSMO installer refuses to uninstall or reinstall. Thankfully a rare problem, but one that has persisted from the GASMO, then GSSMO through to GWSMO. This post will talk about how to manually uninstall Google Workspace Sync for Microsoft Outlook (hereafter referred to as GWSMO).

For one reason or another you have decided to uninstall GWSMO or attempted to reinstall to over come some issue.



Error: MAPI was unable to load the information service C:\Program Files (x86)\Google Apps Sync\gsync.dll

This is particular common where problems have persisted even after you've run through "Set up a Google Apps Sync user" and created a new Outlook profile for your Google Workspace email account.


Where the uninstall fails via add/remove programs, here's how to manually remove GWSMO components, to overcome errors that block reinstallation

  1. Ensure Outlook is not running
  2. Rename the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google Apps Sync
    ie. Append '.old' to the folder name
  3. Rename the folder C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Google\Google Apps Sync
    ie. Append '.old' to the folder name
  4. Rerun the installer and configure GWSMO.
  5. Upon completion can confirming all is operating as required, you can safely delete the renamed folders.